Ondo Guber: 38 days to poll, political parties delay campaigns

With 38 days to the forthcoming off-cycle November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, political activities regarding voters’ engagement and campaigns on the part of political parties remain subdued in the state.

The development has become worrisome among the electorate as well as in some political quarters of the state, despite the nod by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) granting approval for political parties to commence campaign activities since June 19, 2024.

According to findings by The Guardian, none of the 17 political parties have yet to hit the ground running with the non-release of their campaign timetable, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been the only party that has constituted a campaign council, with the Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, as chairman.

With the slow pace of political activities raising concerns, a political analyst in the state, Kunle Fatukasi, described the situation as troubling, adding that the move depicted an inclination towards vote-buying rather than genuine engagement with the electorate.

Fatukasi stated that political parties usually invest heavily in campaigns to galvanise support and articulate their vision to the public.

“The current inertia suggests that some parties may be contemplating alternative strategies, potentially prioritising financial inducements over traditional campaign methods,” he said.

When contacted, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Kennedy Peretei, disclosed that the party has embarked on a one-on-one campaign across the state.

He said: “You will notice that we have commenced campaigns across the entire state without the usual fanfare of the official campaign flag-off, which is still in the pipeline. We adopted a strategy of reaching out to the individual voters who hold the aces on election day.

“We don’t need to induce voters because they already know where shoes pinch them and are ready to change the tide for a better life. Financial inducement is the plan of those who have stolen from our Treasury and use hunger as a weapon to garner votes. But I can assure you that this time, their plans will fail because the people are wiser now.”

For the APC, Alex Kalejaye, publicity secretary of the ruling party, assured The Guardian that the party is on top of the situation.

“The campaign committee list is ready, and we are flagging off our campaign very soon, most likely by this weekend,” he added.

“Once the list is out, we are going to embark on a vigorous campaign across the 18 local government areas. The good thing about the APC is we have the structures at the state, local, ward, and unit levels. We don’t need to embark on a three-month campaign.

“We have the population behind us. So many gladiators from other political parties keep defecting to the APC, and they have come to add value to the APC. All these will help us to garner the support of the people and win the election without much stress. Voter inducement has never been part of our strategies.”

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola, disclosed that the commission is set to tackle the menace of vote-buying, stressing that anti-graft agencies in the country are poised to curb the trend in the oncoming polls.

She said: “We are working assiduously with security operatives, and they have shown us tremendous support.

“In our Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security, we have ICPC and EFCC. They have assured us that they have structures in place to prevent and arrest vote sellers and the buyers.”

Meanwhile, out of the 17 political parties that will be participating in the election, three parties will not have agents at all levels of polling and collation during the exercise.

Babalola added that “after the closure of the portal for the upload of polling and collation agents for the Ondo State governorship election, out of 74,790 expected agents, the political parties contesting in the election only uploaded 24,148 agents to the portal, indicating that only 32.3% of the expected agents were nominated on the portal. Three political parties have no agents at all levels of polling and collation.”